Testimonials

Outstanding board meeting last night. Debra Natenshon did an incredible job! I have worked with many similar consultants in the health care setting and seen so many reports over the years, hers was outstanding, thoughtful, rigorous and more importantly gave Shalva useful data and a platform to build on. And, an empirical base to assess improvement and performance.

Neil Hochstadt, PhD, SHALVA Board Member

The impact that Debra Natenshon at DBN & Associates made on our community engagement initiative (collective impact for education at all levels) was transformational for everyone involved. In four months, Debra brought clarity not just to our organization, but to our entire community, in terms of who we are here to serve, our role in the community, and our all-important vision and mission. Aligning each of these pieces was like completing a jigsaw puzzle, with each puzzle piece finding its place, bringing increased clarity and understanding to the table. Our Learning Link participants, now led by Chairs and Vice-chairs, have gained ownership around our vision and mission, guiding principles and target-setting.

The opportunity to question ourselves and the re-defining process that ensued clearly strengthened our initiative and affirmed that we are in the space best suited for our Community Foundation: to inspire lifelong learners throughout our county. Thank you, Debra, for this meaningful opportunity to re-focus.

We want to thank you again so very much for being here with us at the 2016 CQI Conference. We have heard nothing but rave reviews about your keynote and the impact that you made on our attendees. So – many many thanks!

Jennifer Eblen Manning, Program Director, Foster Care Utilization Review Program at the University of Illinois School of Social Work

Marilynn and I and the Center are transitioning nicely – thanks to the tremendous forward moving energy you provided. I feel this move provides great space for exciting things to happen here. Thank you for providing your skills and brilliant heart for capacity building work. It’s paying off –

Lettie Haver, Paul Clark Nonprofit Resource Center

Many thanks @DebraNatenshon for wise leadership and facilitation throughout our visioning process! So wonderful to work with you!

Marilynn Fauth and Lettie Haver, Paul Clark Nonprofit Resource Center

Debra Natenshon's work with United Friends with the Children initiated a sea change for the organization and we cannot recommend her highly enough. With her calm, confident manner, Debra created a safe space for our staff to have some ground-breaking conversations about our programs and services that set the stage for shifting the way that the entire organization thinks about data, outcomes and performance management. We are grateful to Debra for her leadership, intelligence, experience and insight!

Dorsey Kleger-Heine, Chief Operating Officer & Legal Counsel, United Friends of the Children

In 2009, National Relief Charities (NRC) hired Debra Natenshon to help advance our outcome measurement system. She guided us through a process that resulted in an outcome and management framework that was immediately useful to us and led to improved programmatic results for our partner agencies on American Indian reservations.

Recently NRC went through a critical transition period. During this time, we needed to expand our outcome framework and better articulate our outcomes to new stakeholders. Given our previous positive experience with Debra, we reached out to DBN & Associates for help with this project. Debra is a skilled and experienced facilitator. She quickly helped us achieve alignment between strategic organizational changes and our outcome framework. When presented with the final product, our leadership agreed that the framework helped achieve a heightened level of clarity regarding NRC’s programs and achievable mission attainment. The outcome tools Debra helped us develop improved our ability to manage toward results and report those results to our stakeholders.

Debra is a focused and effective consultant. She quickly understood our needs and provided a concise project plan to meet those needs. She kept our project on track and on the timeline. Debra facilitated great discussion among our project team, challenging ideas and encouraging new thinking. Her style energized our team and moved us from a fairly stuck spot into a productive, creative work mode. Debra is much more than a facilitator, however, which sets her apart from many other consultants we have hired. She produces valuable original work based on what she learned from our team combined with her own considerable experience and expertise. The final product of our work together was a blend of our best ideas and her expertise.

We reengaged Debra because she is a tremendous value. She produces very high quality work and she works quickly. Debra is a leader in the field of outcome thinking, so the information she provides is on-the-cutting-edge. She takes the most current research and thinking related to management and results in the third sector and applies it directly to our work.